Over the past several months, several of us have managed to uncover news and other information regarding upcoming extrasolar planet announcements that are not at the time intended to be publicly released. An example of this from the past is the existence of Fomalhaut b, as well as more recently, some sensitive CoRoT information.

Announcements often don't come as quick-paced as we would like, and so I understand the desire to be ahead of the game, to know what scientists have found. I'll admit to getting carried away with knowing about information that isn't meant to be released. Sometimes, however, the information is simply not for public disclosure, and mentioning it here violates the wishes of the astronomers and or discoverers who are analyzing or preparing the information.

It is unethical to prematurely release someone's work before their approval. As such, it is time tocrack down on such behavior around this site.

It is perfectly acceptable to post news regarding information that is up on Arixv, Nature, AAS, or other publicly accessible locations. Items announced in press conferences, news releases, or similar is also acceptable.

Information that is hidden, and not designed to be accessed, will no longer be posted here. If there is no link to the information from a website's home page, publication links, or bibliography, then it is probably not meant to be released.

Information in a pdf that has been censored was done so for a reason, and so what lies underneath that censor will not be posted here (this occurred for MOA-2007-BLG-192-L b before it was announced a long while back).

Bad sources of information:· Underneath censors in a document (e.g. MOA-2007-BLG-192-L b embargo breach)· Online paper that is not meant to be released (no hyperlink to it) (e.g. Fomalhaut b embargo breach, CoRoT embargo breach)· Any other online material that is hidden.

If you are in possession of information, and you aren't sure whether or not to post it, feel free to send a private message.

I'm fairly naive about what is, and what is not, supposed to be embargoed. Furthermore, I cannot give this forum constant attention tomake sure people don't post what they shouldn't. As such, I'm going to give Lazarus the ability to delete/edit posts that break such embargoes.